What is the American Dream?

American Dream
(əˈmerikən drēm)

See Life, Liberty, Pursuit & Happiness

The Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The tenets of the American dream live inside these words, for without an American dream, the Declaration of Independence could never exist. However, attempting to offer a concrete definition of the American dream yields diverse outcomes, as does an individual's pathway to dreaming it and pursuing it.

The American dream exists as the ideal upon which this nation is built. It is a pathway along which one attains the freedom to aspire and the possibility to achieve. Some are born into it, some spend their whole lives in search of it, and some work their entire lives to achieve it. Here are their stories.